French Senate Rejects Shale Gas Explorations
The upper chamber of French Congress struck down a UMP motion on February 18th that could have overturned an anti-fracking law voted by their own party under Nicolas Sarkozy. Is this a political game changer two years from the next presidential election?
30 senators from the right-wing UMP ruling party introduced an amendment to the energy bill on the Senate floor aimed to “check the non-conventional hydrocarbons available in France.”
In other words, if passed, the law would have allowed underground explorations to identify shale gas resources.
Philippe Leroy, Senator from Moselle, a northeastern region with a glorious industrial past, who took the legislative initiative in the first place deeply regrets the decision made by the chamber.
It is a win for political ideologies over science. “There is a conformist thinking which leaves non-conventional gas out of scientific researches the same way we ban GMOs and stem cell researches. It’s a new kind of gallicism that wants to prevent people from getting the knowledge and the flow of science in the modern world.”
As an engineer, Philippe Leroy criticizes the claim that shale gas explorations will led to fracking. “It’s such backwards thinking,” he adds.
Research, explore, but do not frack for now
Any shale gas exploration may have to be defined by the law to avoid a lack of transparency from oil and gas companies and private laboratories and trust the data.
“We can easily conclude agreements and discovery programs that do not include de facto the right to exploit the resources,” Philippe Leroy explains.
The senator suggests spreading out research over time so the French State can handle the cost.
For now, the UMP doesn’t want to support shale gas operations because of the threats fracking represents for the environment. “We will need to launch a research program to study how we can extract and exploit shale gas as safe and cheap as possible. It may be a United Nations program to draw the conclusions of fracking experiences worldwide with data. We could analyze the causes and the frequency of accidents that occurred in the United States and Canada.”
Sarkozy flip-flops on fracking
This latest attempt to explore shale gas resources echoes Nicolas Sarkozy's new stance on the issue. Sarkozy, President François Hollande's predecessor, has re-entered the political fray.
The newly elected UMP president addressed the issue during a town hall meeting back in September. “I cannot tolerate that the United States has become energy independent thanks to shale gas when in the same time France cannot benefit from this new energy source in a country where entire areas and local communities are devastated by unemployment. It’s an unacceptable situation”, Sarkozy says.
However, as President, Nicolas Sarkozy supported in 2011 a bill introduced by a member of his own party to ban hydraulic fracturing and shale gas extraction.
Then, the Constitutional Council (an institution that has the authority to strike down a law the same way the Supreme Court can in the US) upheld the law in 2013.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy denied three research licenses to explore in Southern France and reassured environmental groups: “I will not allow shale gas extractions by hydraulic fracturing. I know TOTAL has lodged an appeal, we are not going to change our view.”
Some political figures from the moderate wing of the party disagree with Sarkozy’s new stance such as Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet, the UMP vice-president and former Minister for Environment.
A complete reversal that may be due to Sarkozy’s willing to reach out low income and blue collar voters attracted by the far right National Front party.
A CSA institute opinion poll released last October showed that 44% of people questioned support shale gas explorations if tested in most European countries. The support jumps to 59% among right wing voters. More interesting, just 36% of young people aged 18 to 24 and 39% of workers opposed in principle but 58% of managers. Two social groups that tend to vote for the National Front.
Across the political spectrum
National Front (Far-right): The National Front position on shale gas development is not clear either and has changed time to time since 2012. Marine Le Pen could actually share the UMP amendment which failed to pass in the Senate. “It is unthinkable not to explore our potential resources but we are not in a position to exploit shale gas.” The leader of the National Front was strongly opposed to shale gas development when she ran for President in 2012 but she explained few months later that refusing to do some research was an old thinking from “The Stone Age.”
UDI (center right): The traditional UMP political ally supports shale gas research but do not want to go further according to its newly elected leader Jean-Christophe Lagarde. “We are condemning hydraulic fracturing because of its negative impact on the environment but this does not mean we should not look for other technics that would protect our lands.”
Socialist Party (center left): Most Socialists support their government policies concerning shale gas. No exploitation nor exploration under François Hollande presidency.The debate was closed when Arnaud Montebourg, the minister of Economy was forced to leave his cabinet position. In February 2014, Montebourg said he was not opposed to shale gas explorations. “Pollution is the main issue in the fracking debate. If we are able to fix the problem, we can reopen the debate”. Two years from the next presidential election, François Hollande doesn’t want to talk about shale gas and divide his party and his allies on the left especially the Greens.
Europe Ecology - The Greens: The Greens is the most anti-fracking party and the least open to explore or exploit shale gas potential resources. The party supports anti-fracking rallies across the country. Greens leader Emmanuelle Cosse repeatedly condemned any shale gas talk in the strongest terms. “Enough with shale gas. We have already debated over and over again in the past”.
Left Front (far-left): The far-left is also against fracking. Here’s the statement written by the Left Front leader François Delapierre discussing the issue last September. “Shale gas extracted are fossil fuels with important greenhouse gas emissions making climate change even worse whatever the technique used”.
Kevin Bonnaud